Jackie Phamotse’s survival guide to social media

At this point in time, it is no secret that we live in a fully digital and connected world. We’re always glued to our phone screens spending unimaginable amounts of money on data and applications on digital stores.

I Tweet What I Like: So Sue Me, Jackie Phamotse’s highly anticipated book sees the acclaimed author take on unchartered waters in SA’s literature scene by gifting fans of her work a survival guide of the digital era we live in.

Inspired by Steve Biko’s famous book, I Write What I Like, Jackie covers a lot of aspects of the digital world in her latest offering – a move that saw her move away from previous fictional work such as her best-selling book, Bare.

“I have covered a lot of aspects when it comes to the digital world, where it started, where we’re going and where we are now. There’s things like cyberbullying, mental health, reputation management, the fourth industrial revolution…It’s everything that I really try to encompass when it comes to the digital world,” Phamotse said.

In a nutshell, the book intends to help readers understand the power of social media and is based on factual research and Jackie’s navigation of the digital world. In writing the book, Jackie said it was difficult finding South African authored books that looked at the social media landscape.

“It’s important for us to really have knowledge around social media and also find ways of using it correctly, as a tool, more than anything else,” she said.

Jackie’s book comes hot off the heels of the 2019 Global Digital Yearbook which reported that 31 million people are online in South Africa. The study further found that the country has seen a growth in social media activity and reported a five million user increase in active social media users. Facebook was positioned as the biggest social media platform in the country.

“We’re at a place where social media really governs everybody, it was only right to come up with a social media handbook that speaks to a generation that’s evolving,” Phamotse said.

Last year, the author rose to prominence following the release of the much controversial book, Bare, her recent release pits the author on a different extreme as she grows as a writer tackling more theoretical and practical issues.

  “What I’ve done with both of the books is try to speak openly about the African narrative from different perspectives. As an author, it was important to run away from the stigma of being just a novelist or one-hit wonder,” she said.

Jackie said the sequel to Bare is slated for a 16 June release and was dedicated to the youth.